Phone tracking – What is it all about?

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Today, most of us cannot imagine a life without a mobile phone. Whether it is for calling people we know or using the device to send messages – a mobile phone is something that has become part and parcel of our everyday life.  In fact, with the advent of smartphones and even smarter technology, the mobile phone has gone from being something that makes and receives calls to something that can run our life in a smoother manner. Living an online and connected life is so much easier with the mobile phone that we use it for banking, shopping, social networking and much more.

Mobile phone tracking is also important if one is talking about company policies. For instance an employer would like to prevent and correct misuse of the device that he has supplied to his employees. Regardless of the reason, mobile phone tracking is all about getting a fix on the location of the device with the help of GPS or using mobile phone towers. GPS or Global Positioning System works on the basis of satellite navigation and only needs the device to be equipped with a GPS receiver.

Phone tracking can also be conducted with the help of triangulation or multilateration of signals emitting from the phone and nearby mobile phone towers. The better the signal, the more reliable the information pertaining to the mobile phone location. When one talks about tracking a mobile phone it is to do mostly with finding the physical location of the device. In fact many service providers have support for doing such tracking as well which is of great help when it comes to finding out the phone’s whereabouts. There is one more aspect to mobile phone tracking and that is the use of software.

There is a staggering array of software solutions that help with the need for an individual to track a mobile phone. In fact, such technology of mobile phone tracking pre-dates the use of GPS locational services too. If the mobile phone is ‘on’ then it could be traced  – pure and simple. This method is called GSM phone tracking. GSM or Global System for Mobile Communications relies on using these GSM signals to locate – as accurately as possible – the last known position of an individual. Between the two technologies, the GPS method of phone tracking yields more information and more granular information at that.

Information like latitude, longitude and even altitude of the phone and therefore of the individual carrying the phone can be ascertained. This in combination with leading software specific to the phone – Android, Blackberry or iPhone – and something like Google Maps can mean an almost pinpointed accuracy of the phone’s location. There are also systems and software that combine both the methods or technologies of phone tracking to offer some astounding results. Such software can isolate the  phone to within 50 meters or 54 yards or around 165 feet of its location.


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